OPEN HEART SURGERY

DOCTORS AND HEARTS

Three soldiers were doctors and two doctors were civilians. Four men and two women sat around the meeting table at Gen. Ikenna's house. Brig. Amano sat beside Col. Ezizi, adjacent to Dr. Tega and Dr. Adeyemi while the two Generals sat on single sofas, opposite each other.

Col. Ezizi ignored the white wine and went for the scotch. He poured some of the sting into his glass. "Were you referring to Pulmonary Angioplasty?" He asked, just to make the others feel he was contributing.

“No, he was talking about ischemic heart disease, and I'm sorry but I'll need someone to break that down." Gen. Omowunmi said. She was the only person at the table who was not a medical professional. Her duty was to monitor and influence all classified military projects and to call them off whenever she sensed the risk would be higher and the dangers more severe than the anticipated.

“It's a coronary artery disease, referring to a group of diseases such as myocardial infarction, stable and unstable angina, etcetera." Brig. Amano tried to explain.

"Perfect! Just the answer i needed." Gen. Omowunmi muttered.

Dr. Tega smiled. "When the coronary arteries stiffen from the deposition of hydroxyapatite, obstructing blood flow to the heart." Dr. Tega said. "The patient could be said to have ischemic heart disease.”

“Atherosclerosis." Col. Ezizi said, tiredly, confusing her some more.

"Atherosclerosis or Ischemic heart disease, which is it?" The female General asked sharply, in frustration. "Why don't you guys just ride on, I'm sure I'll understand before the month runs out." She said, ironically.

“I'm sure you will." Dr. Tega teased.

Dr. Tega was the head of Cardiology Department at Graceland Specialist Hospital, Abuja. She was contacted by the military to get in touch with her boss, Dr. Adeyemi, the best heart surgeon in the country from Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital. Dr. Adeyemi was pleased to meet with Top View medical researchers. He had heard that the soldiers were remarkably thorough and were good at what they did but they were also very good at not making a lot of noise.

The soldiers had interrogated them for hours and the civilians had wondered why they were so interested in minimally invasive procedures and open heart surgery. "Having to open the heart is not as important as getting the job done without touching the heart." Dr. Adeyemi said. "It's safer, better and cleaner.”

Col. Ezizi had been unkind to the scotch and the liquid had sealed his mouth and imprisoned him to his chair. General Ikenna feared the Colonel would make a fool of himself before the civilians and so, he considered wrapping up the meeting faster than he had planned. "Do you guys still stop the heart and introduce Cardio pulmonary bypass?" Gen. Ikenna asked.

“Yes, we still make use of the heart-lung machine." Dr. Tega replied.

Dr. Adeyemi smiled, surprised that they had asked such a stupid question. "How would you perform an open heart surgery without a machine to support the patient and the procedure?”

“Are you aware of the disadvantages of using the heart-lung machine?" Brig. Amano queried.

"Yes, all doctors should be." Dr. Adeyemi replied.

"Minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting and off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting has made up a significant facet of the recent attempts of surgical myocardial revascularization to evolve. What else can you tell me beyond what I just said?" Gen. Ikenna asked.

The officers were sure the other doctors knew all these, but they were mostly interested in figuring out if there was something the civilians knew which the soldiers were yet to. "Are you aware of any other minimally invasive procedure?" Brig. Amano asked, in an attempt to break down Gen. Ikenna's question.

Dr. Adeyemi frowned at the treatment. His questions were not being answered but the soldiers continued to juice out answers from them. "There are a few other Robotically Assisted Minimally Invasive Procedures."

Dr. Tega was not losing it as fast as her boss, was about to. "These procedures avoid the possible complications that could arise from the cardio assisted, opened heart, pulmonary bypass, but still gets the job done while still respecting the aorta no-touch techniques." Dr. Tega said.

“Have you considered a non robotic, opened heart, stopped, off pump surgery?" Gen. Ikenna asked, with a smile on his face for the first time that night.

Dr. Adeyemi chuckled. "General, I'm sorry but even the whites have not-”

“I don't want to hear about the whites! I asked you, a black Yoruba man. Have you?" Gen. Ikenna barked, waking up the sleeping Colonel.

“No! I have not gone mad yet." Dr. Adeyemi replied, with a bruised ego.

“Sometimes madness could be the cure." Col. Ezizi spoke up as he scrutinized the content of his glass before going for a refill. The women in the house looked at each other and knew it had fallen on them to ease the tension, so they ceased Col. Ezizi's action as an opportunity to laugh. The other soldiers joined them. Dr. Adeyemi only smiled and picked up his glass of wine to suppress his rising anger.

Dr. Tega turned to Gen. Ikenna. "Sir, with an off pump opened heart surgery, what happens to the brain when blood and oxygen stops circulating?"

"It wil shutdown." Dr. Adeyemi, gave the obvious answer.

“It will hibernate." Brig. Amano said, leaving the civilians in bewilderment.

The sounds of the vehicles driving out of the compound at about 0130 hours, had woken Zak, and he went down stairs for some water. "Father works all night, what does sons do?" Gen. Ikenna's voice startled Zak. Zak had not noticed him at the dining.

“Father sounds happy tonight, what's the latest?" Zak said.

“Take a seat son, let's talk." The General said. Zak smiled and took a seat in a hurry to listen to the revelation of the source of his father's joy. "The meeting was about an ongoing research at the institute." The General continued.

Zak took another look at his father's face and became skeptical. "Okay. I'm sure that's not the reason we are not in our beds yet Fada?”

“I wanted to talk about," He stopped and caught his son's eyes. "Look Zak, when I said I didn't want that girl in this house again, I actually meant I didn't want her around my son again.”

Zak knew it had to be Nicole serious for his father to request his audience at that time of the night. "I'll be moving into my house next week, once the smell of the paints thins out.”

“Ever since we talked about that girl, you've been in such a hurry to leave your father house. Why would you think I'm driving you out of my house for any reason?”

“Because I'm a grown up man." Zak answered, with a smile on his face.

"I'm not as interested with where you stay as much as I am with who stays around you." His father said. "If you knew the difference between family and friends, you'd not have slept with Dara and gone after her friend.”

Zak almost caught a heart attack. "I did not sleep with Dara!" He lied. How did he know? No one should have known, not even Nene who was in the house both times, when it happened. "Who told you that?" Zak asked.

“When you have a spy for a father, there're advantages as well disadvantages." Gen. Ikenna said, smiling at his son with pride but not necessarily in admiration. "s*x to us, is information but women don't deal with that, they deal with emotions, feelings and everything else beyond their control or comprehension."

Zak would really love to listen to his father school him on love, s*x and relationship but he didn't like the direction in which it tilted. He had grown up as a happy child in a happy home. His father certainly knew a lot about the subjects, he was good husband. His parents were a perfect couple as far as Zak was concerned. Zak wished Nicole was not going to be the chapter one of their conversation. He also knew his wish was only a wish and the truth was that Nicole would be the title of the entire book. "Fada, if this is about Nicole again, I'm sure you're ready to give me a better reason this time."

“I already gave you a reason.”

“You said she was white, and that reason was far from concrete." Zak said, sharply. "My educated father tells me, in this 21st Century to turn my back on the only girl I've ever loved because she's white? That sounded like a joke, so i laughed about it."

“Zak, has it become so hard for you to trust my judgments? Gen. Ikenna said. "You're different Zak, she traditionally uncultured, genetically hateful, arrogant and repugnant, lascivious and contentious, incongruous and incompatible. Her kind is full of s**t and made of trash." The General lashed out, bitterly.

“Fada! We're all made from dust, trash. Maybe that's why we're all genetically hateful and full of shit." Zak said, maintaining a calm tone, trying not to get into an argument with his father. "The person you just described is not Nicole, Fada.”

The General played along with a smile and tried not to turn it into a drama. "Let's say, this thing escalates and her father-in-law wants to eat Akpu and Okazi soup, how would she figure that out?” He said, on a lighter note.

The meal was a Bekinta native dish which took a lot of energy, skill and time to prepare. It was also customary for daughters-in-law to prepare meals for their fathers-in-law whenever they visited their homes. He would send a notice, stating the meal of his choice, three days ahead of his visit.

General Ikenna's joke cracked, and Zak laughed for a long time. That was a good joke because he knew his father did not care about the Bekinta dos and don'ts for daughters-in-law, and he certainly did not care about Akpu and Okazi soup prepared by Nicole.

The thoughts of Nicole preparing Akpu and Okazi soup sounded exciting for Zak. "That's the beautiful thing about Niki, she's adventurous. She would learn anything if she had to do it for love sake." Zak enforced his defense.

Gen. Ikenna stood up. "Son, there is a difference between love and falling in love. When one falls, he seldom survives it. But when you love, it's a decision not an illusion."

Zak watched him walk away. His father never took a 'no' for an answer, he was a strategist and he had applied the dialogue strategy, there would be other strategies from A – Z until Zak yielded, else he would take it to the extreme and damn the consequences. How extreme would the extreme be? Zak could not put his finger on that.

The whole talk about race was a mask of absolute bluff and the real reason was behind it. What was he hiding and why was he hiding it? All these questions made him wonder if there was more to Nicole than he knew, because all he knew and wanted to know was that he was in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, with the most beautiful heart, a sinless lady, pure and holy. She was his golden goddess and he was too educated, too grown up to walk out on her just because daddy said so.

Like Fada, son would damn the consequences, after all he was his father's son but he feared Nicole might get caught in the cross fire. What ever happened, one thing was sure, if the man won't talk, the boy won't listen.